This invention relates generally as indicated to a landing gear mechanism including controlled instroke and rebound damping during landing on rough runways. Such a landing gear mechanism is especially designed to accommodate rebound damping associated with high performance short take-off and landing (S.T.O.L.) type aircraft such as operated by the military, but is also applicable to other types of high performance aircraft as well. Also, such landing gear mechanism desirably includes stroke overload protection to accommodate the deep stroke requirements of severe bumps during landing.
It is already generally known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,552,324, assigned to the same assignee as the present application, to provide a landing gear mechanism with a taxi instroke bypass valve that opens as soon as the landing stroke is complete to substantially reduce or eliminate the high damping loads that might otherwise take place during taxiing on rough runways. However, there is a continuing need to provide a more simplified way of achieving such controlled instroke damping.
Also, there is a need to enhance the rebound damping of the landing gear mechanism used on S.T.O.L. type aircraft. Because of the higher sink landing speeds (e.g., velocity toward the ground during landing) and different lift characteristics of S.T.O.L. type aircraft during landing, there is a greater tendency for S.T.O.L. type aircraft to rebound (e.g., bounce back off the ground) during landing. This condition is made even worse if the aircraft has to operate on rough runways, made rough, for example, as a result of temporary repairs to bomb damaged areas and the like.
Furthermore, there is a need to provide a simple and effective way of accommodating the deep stroke requirements of the landing gear to attenuate severe bumps during landing on rough runways without adversely affecting the aforementioned controlled instroke and rebound damping during landing.